Die erneuerte Partnerschaft mit der südlichen Nachbarschaft: Was ist neu an der „neuen Agenda“?

In February 2021, the European Commission came up with “a new Agenda for the Mediterranean” (new Agenda). After the latest review of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) in 2015, a new strategy had been expected for some time. Which aspects, however, are “new” in the new Agenda? Based on a review of the last 25 years of Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP) and Neighbourhood Policy, the article explores to what extent the new Agenda is set to offer any change deserving to be called genuine or merely reflects old wine in new bottles. Within a content and discourse analytical approach, the article tracks how the concepts’ major topics and strategic frames evolved over the course of the years with a focus on the specific aspect of securitization. While the new Agenda seems to be reaching a new apex as regards the latter, there is much to be found in its text that is already well known from earlier strategy papers.

The EU human rights and democratisation policy

The promise of the Lisbon Treaty to put human rights, democracy, and the rule of law at the centre of all external action led to renew the EU’s efforts to frame an effective response to the challenges that human rights and democracy face worldwide. A Strategic Framework and Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy was adopted in June 2012 followed by a second Action Plan for 2015–2019. The Action Plans looked to increase the coherence and complementarity of all the tools that support human rights and democracy across the world. This chapter first analyses the objectives and priorities that guide the EU human rights and democratisation policy and the specific tools and instruments developed by the EU to implement them. Then it sheds light on the opportunities and challenges posed by the human rights and democratisation policy using as an example some of the questions raised in the relations between the EU and Egypt, a country under the European Neighbourhood Policy. This case shows that to effectively promote and defend human rights and democracy would mean first of all integrating consistently their promotion in the different EU policies involved in a region such as development, migration, security, counter-terrorism, women’s rights and gender equality, enlargement, and trade. The chapter concludes that the EU should strive to keep its commitment and not to conceal its values in order to be a leading actor in the field of human rights.